Sourcing/Procurement News
Most Read
Most E-mailed
E-mail Article
Print Article
Slashing Sourcing Times for Electronic Components Buyers
Bulk search tool from Verical matches open orders with available supply for multiple shortages, delivering component solutions to buyers looking to put out 'shortage fires'
San Francisco February 10, 2010 — Online electronic components outlet Verical has debuted a bulk search tool that matches open requirements with available supply automatically, aiming to slash sourcing times for electronic components buyers.
With the new DemandMatch, open requirements generated by planning systems are matched with available supply at www.verical.com, segmented and returned via e-mail to the buyers responsible for purchasing the components. Verical said that DemandMatch should dramatically reduce the time it takes buyers to procure parts "on demand," slashing sourcing time from hours or days to minutes.
Chris Cookson, vice president of operations for Verical, noted that parts shortages can be weekly, "hair-on-fire" problems for electronic manufacturing services (EMS) companies.
"When a production line goes down, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per day in lost revenue and market share," Cookson said. "Worse still, if orders are perishable, then each lost sale impacts the bottom line at the gross margin level."
EMS companies spend anywhere from 1 percent to 10 percent of their total material spend filling shortages by sourcing from the secondary market, according to Cookson. Buyers typically spend over 40 percent of their time sourcing the 1 percent of the parts they purchase to cover shortages. "DemandMatch 'puts out the fire,' saving companies time and money while keeping production lines up and running," he said.
DemandMatch in Detail
DemandMatch delivers in-stock supply information to buyers with extremely short deadlines, allowing them to fill their time-critical needs for production shortages, new product introduction builds and repair orders. Groups of factories can be served simultaneously. DemandMatch e-mails buyers when exact matches or drop-in replacement upgrades are available for immediate purchase and delivery. Buyers need only click on hyperlinks embedded in the e-mail to view matches.
The DemandMatch process begins when Verical receives an electronic requirements report from the planning systems of participating OEM and EMS companies. These lists may be submitted in any electronic format, including industry-standard protocols such as RosettaNet, Web services, XML, cXML, xCBL or EDI. Alternatively, buyers may upload lists directly to the Verical Web site by registering and then clicking on the "Buyer's Workbench" tab.
After the requirements list is submitted to Verical, DemandMatch automatically generates match lists and segments them by buyer. The individualized match lists are subsequently e-mailed to each buyer. Each e-mail includes hyperlinks that navigate users to matches in the Verical outlet. There, buyers review the matches against their open requirements, select the parts they wish to buy and check out.
"DemandMatch delivers component solutions to buyers in advance of the Monday morning shortage meeting, provided that their planning systems are calibrated to send information to Verical after running over the weekend," said Cookson, who held the position of vice president for supply chain solutions at Solectron prior to joining Verical. "If our automated tool can enable buyers to get parts in the air two days earlier than through a manual sourcing process, we've reduced their risk considerably. Their lines stay up, penalties are avoided, and they can deliver their finished products on time."
With the new DemandMatch, open requirements generated by planning systems are matched with available supply at www.verical.com, segmented and returned via e-mail to the buyers responsible for purchasing the components. Verical said that DemandMatch should dramatically reduce the time it takes buyers to procure parts "on demand," slashing sourcing time from hours or days to minutes.
Chris Cookson, vice president of operations for Verical, noted that parts shortages can be weekly, "hair-on-fire" problems for electronic manufacturing services (EMS) companies."When a production line goes down, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per day in lost revenue and market share," Cookson said. "Worse still, if orders are perishable, then each lost sale impacts the bottom line at the gross margin level."
EMS companies spend anywhere from 1 percent to 10 percent of their total material spend filling shortages by sourcing from the secondary market, according to Cookson. Buyers typically spend over 40 percent of their time sourcing the 1 percent of the parts they purchase to cover shortages. "DemandMatch 'puts out the fire,' saving companies time and money while keeping production lines up and running," he said.
DemandMatch in Detail
DemandMatch delivers in-stock supply information to buyers with extremely short deadlines, allowing them to fill their time-critical needs for production shortages, new product introduction builds and repair orders. Groups of factories can be served simultaneously. DemandMatch e-mails buyers when exact matches or drop-in replacement upgrades are available for immediate purchase and delivery. Buyers need only click on hyperlinks embedded in the e-mail to view matches.
The DemandMatch process begins when Verical receives an electronic requirements report from the planning systems of participating OEM and EMS companies. These lists may be submitted in any electronic format, including industry-standard protocols such as RosettaNet, Web services, XML, cXML, xCBL or EDI. Alternatively, buyers may upload lists directly to the Verical Web site by registering and then clicking on the "Buyer's Workbench" tab.
After the requirements list is submitted to Verical, DemandMatch automatically generates match lists and segments them by buyer. The individualized match lists are subsequently e-mailed to each buyer. Each e-mail includes hyperlinks that navigate users to matches in the Verical outlet. There, buyers review the matches against their open requirements, select the parts they wish to buy and check out.
"DemandMatch delivers component solutions to buyers in advance of the Monday morning shortage meeting, provided that their planning systems are calibrated to send information to Verical after running over the weekend," said Cookson, who held the position of vice president for supply chain solutions at Solectron prior to joining Verical. "If our automated tool can enable buyers to get parts in the air two days earlier than through a manual sourcing process, we've reduced their risk considerably. Their lines stay up, penalties are avoided, and they can deliver their finished products on time."
RSS Feeds
